Dark Age Greece

SCHNAPP-GOURBEILLON A., Aux Origines de la Grèce, Paris, 2010 (Compte Rendu N. Gentile)

by Nicolas Gentile

The Influence of Climatic Change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages

by Brandon Lee Drake

Between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE, most Greek Bronze-Age Palatial centers were destroyed and/or abandoned. The... more Between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE, most Greek Bronze-Age Palatial centers were destroyed and/or abandoned. The following centuries were typified by low population levels. Data from oxygen-isotope speleothems, stable carbon isotopes, alkenone-derived sea surface temperatures, and changes in warm species dinocysts and formanifera in the Mediterranean indicate that the Early Iron Age was more arid than the preceding Bronze Age. A sharp increase in Northern Hemisphere temperatures preceded the collapse of Palatial centers, a sharp decrease occurred during their abandonment. Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures cooled rapidly during the Late Bronze Age, limiting freshwater flux into the atmosphere and thus reducing precipitation over land. These climatic changes could have affected Palatial centers that were dependent upon high levels of agricultural productivity. Declines in agricultural production would have made higher-density populations in Palatial centers unsustainable. The ‘Greek Dark Ages’ that followed occurred during prolonged arid conditions that lasted until the Roman Warm Period.

On the Historicity of the "Homeric World": Some Methodological Considerations

by Marek Wecowski

[in:] A. Mazarakis Ainian (ed.), The “Dark Ages” Revisited. Acts of an international symposium in memory of William D. E. Coulson. University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007, Volos 2011 (University of Thessaly Press), vol. I, p. 73-81

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